Gaining Money From The Currency Markets With Automated Expert Advisors (Forex Bots)
The most broadly known and accepted bots aren’t commonly called bots at all, but Expert Advisors or EAs. These are the diminutive programs developed inside the popular MetaTrader4 (or MT4) trading platform used chiefly for transactions in foreign exchange (or forex or fx). As you can see, this field is awash with specialized language, so I’ll try to explain it as I go. The advantage of the forex market, from a bot owner’s point of view is that it runs non-stop from Sunday evening to Friday night, permitting the Expert advisor to monitor the markets continuously during this period, whether you are present at your computer or not. It will open a trade within parameters you set in advance, and close again without your intervention when a target profit or loss has been made. An example of a trade might be to buy the EURUSD currency pair, on the understanding that the Euro is about to improve against the dollar. Many EAs are available without charge from the specialist retail forex forums. The Baby Pips site is specifically commended for general instruction of new traders. If an EA is getting good reviews from respected members of a forum, the chances are that it is safe to try and is most likely a better bet than a low-cost purchase from a flashy sales page. Wherever you source your EA, the most important thing to ensure before you let it loose on your account is that you have set the stop loss to the maximum you are prepared to lose on a single trade (which should normally be a small percentage of your total bankroll). So as not to leave their computers running non-stop, or to avoid arguments with the rest of the family, numerous forex traders subscribe to a Virtual Private Server or VPS service, where your bot operates on a hired server in a remote data centre. This allows you to check in on its progress whenever you feel like it, but switch off your local machine in between. Numerous people make a living out of using EAs for currency trading, and many others top up their income in this way, or dedicate a part of their portfolio to this higher risk but potentially high return pastime. But the learning curve is steep and there are many people making money from selling worthless Expert advisors to new traders, so it is best to do your homework before diving in.
Dedicated to the tracking down of all of the most profitable bots and money-making software on the web, Mark has been documenting his ups and downs since May 2009 at The Botfarm. For more detail on forex EAs (and other bots), take a look at archived posts in The Botfarm. If you are short of time and just want to see a summary of recommendations, consult the short list of the very Best of the Bots